HAMPSHIRE Women’s Institute is celebrating its centenary this year - and driven by a desire to mark the occasion, Selborne WI has come up with a novel way of doing just that.

Inspired by the captivating campaign figures on a specially designed Hampshire WI centenary mug, Selborne member Alison Rouse had the clever notion of creating life-size and life-like ‘scarecrows’.

The idea was to place these figures prominently throughout the village to highlight the WI and the major campaigns it has successfully fought over the last century on behalf of women.

With the consent of Selborne Parish Council secured for their public placement in the village, an enthusiastic team of WI members set about creating these ladies as close to their porcelain counterparts as wit and materials would allow.

Thus, the 10-strong group met at a kindly donated WI member’s garage and paired up, each pair making one of the campaigners.

Bodies were formed from recycled materials ranging from chicken wire to bubble wrap and from foam wadding and tights, and clothes were provided by raiding wardrobes and charity shops.

After some struggles and much invention and hilarity, the ‘ladies’ were created and named.

They were Emmeline, the original home and country representative who also espoused the suffrage cause and votes for women (finally achieved in 1928); Enid, advancing the demand for equal pay in 1943, a struggle which still continues; Mary, who helped to spearhead what became the Keep Britain Tidy campaign from the 1950s leading to the 1958 Litter Act; Betty, who lobbied Government to take immediate action to provide alternative safe accommodation in every county for women and their children who were victims of domestic violence, which successfully led to the introduction of safe haven refuges throughout the country; and Gail, whose SOS called for increased funding to research into honey bee health and the causes of colony collapse disorder.

WI members became bee ambassadors to grow bee-friendly plants and to become beekeepers. The WI joined forces with The Friends of the Earth to campaign for a comprehensive policy framework to launch the national pollinator strategy in 2014.

These inspiring women will be proudly placed in different key locations in Selborne village throughout July so that villagers and the wider community, including passers by, can share and appreciate the great public campaigning work of the WI.